y, 'which can be blockaded, and afterwards
besieged if needful.' For the rest, he is dreadfully ill-off for
provisions, incapable of the least, attempt on Passau (as Friedrich
urged, on hearing of him again); and will have to canton himself in
home-quarters, and live by his shifts till Spring.

"The noise of French censure rises loud, against not themselves,
but against Seckendorf:--Friedrich, before that Tolpatch eclipse of
Correspondence [when three of his Letter-bags were seized, and he fell
quite dark], had too well foreboded, and contemptuously expressed his
astonishment at the blame BOTH were well earning: Passau, said he,
cannot you go at least upon Passau; which might alarm the Enemy a
little, and drag him homewards? 'Adieu, my dear Seckendorf, your Officer
will tell you how we did the Siege of Prag. You and your French are
wetted hens (POULES MOUILLEES),'--cowering about like drenched hens in a
day of set rain. 'As I hear nothing of either of you, I must try to get
out of this business without your help;'"--otherwise it will be ill for
me indeed! [Excerpted Fragment of a Letter from Friedrich,--(exact
date not given, date of EXCERPT is, Donanworth Country, 23d September,
1744),--which the French Agent in Seckendorf's Army had a reading of
(_Campagnes de Coigny,_ iv. 185-187; ib. 216-219: cited in Adelung, iv.
225).] "Which latter expression alarmed the French, and set them upon
writing and bustling, but not upon doing anything."

"Prince Karl had crossed the Rhine unmolested, in the clearest
moonlight, August 23d-24th; Seckendorf was not wholly got to Heilbronn,
September 8th: a pretty way behind Prince Karl! The 6,000 Hessians,
formerly in English pay, indignant Landgraf Wilhelm [who never could
forgive that Machiavellian conduct of Carteret at Hanau, never till he
found out what it really was] has, this year, put into French pay. And
they have now joined Seckendorf; [Espagnac, ii. 13; Buchholz, ii. 123.]
Prince Friedrich [Britannic Majesty's Son-in-law], not good fat Uncle
George, commanding them henceforth:--with extreme lack of profit to
Prince Friedrich, to the Hessians, and to the French, as will appear in
time. These 6,000, and certain thousands of Pfalzers likewise in French
pay, are now with Seckendorf, and have raised him to above 30,000;--it
is the one fruit King Friedrich has got by that 'Union of Frankfurt,'
and by all his long prospective haggling, and struggling for a 'Union
of German Princes in